Georgian Pearls Diamond Fashion Gold Jewelry 30

Georgian Pearls Diamond Fashion Gold Jewelry 

By Aamir Mannan

Despite the historical importance of Maimoto’s pieces, pearls are traditionally white and axiomatically spherical in his production. However pearls can have many different colours, influenced by the type and flesh of the producing mollusc. Most prized, dark Tahitian pearls are the starting point for Yoko/EuroPearls’ baroque creations, with coloured beads that suggest narrative plots from exotic places. Thus, pearls are shown to suddenly depart from a tradition of conspicuous understatement; a brief section on contemporary design in the exhibition readdresses the balance with the purity of modernist designs.

The V&A’s exhibition draws to an end with an enfilade of famous designers. Slightly out of step with the long history that preceded them, this section somewhat baffles the visitor, revealing a high-end market so luxurious as to deserve a place within the museum, yet so colourful as to shed doubt on the authentic value of the materials. At the very end of the exit corridor, visitors are faced with the breathtaking spectacle of buckets full of pearls. But this is not the luscious re-creation of an emperor’s treasure. Rather, the viewer is faced with a grim snapshot of low quality mass production. For if the long history of treasured pearls is all on show at the V&A, their future seems doomed to be cheap.